Business Diary: 15/05/2010

Friday 14 May 2010 23:00 BST

Click to followThe Independent Online

Royal Bank of Canada saves 'Wall Street 2'

Yet another reason to love the Canadians. Oliver Stone tells Hollywood Reporter that he ran into a problem when making Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, the sequel to his Eighties hit: given the first movie's damning take on high finance, the director couldn't find an American bank happy for him to film on its premises.

The likes of Goldman Sachs said a very firm no. And then in stepped Royal Bank of Canada, which proved to be a very welcoming host.

Orange team calls the smart alecs' bluff

Orange's marketing folk have had a busy week. After unveiling the new name for their venture with T-Mobile, Everything Everywhere, they had to cope with a bunch of City hacks trying to be clever. One journalist said the name implied he could ask for anything – even a tin of beans. Orange promptly sent him one. The Independent's man thought that was a little lacking in ambition and wondered out loud why his rival hadn't asked for a DeLorean sports car. Hours later, a toy car, branded with Orange's new moniker, arrived in the office.

The expatriate bankers show no sympathy

give it up for James Chanos, the founder of Kynikos Associates, the hedge fund firm best known for its short selling skills. He has just been named executive of the year by the Hellenic American Bankers Association. Not a lot of loyalty to the motherland from the folk at Haba, with Greece blaming short selling hedge funds for its woes right now.

Taking the risk out of the sport of kings

An email arrives from a human resources consultant, entitled "Mercer appointed by British Horseracing Authority for dynamic de-risking services". What could that mean? No more races with jumps? Something to prevent non-favourites ever winning? Sadly, the truth is a little less fun – it's something to do with the BHA's pension fund.